Monday, November 16, 2009

Doug's Folsom Rick Krispie Fondue-2009

(November 14, 2009) Doug's Folsom Rick Krispie Fondue from Folsom to Georgetown, 75 miles, 15.0 avg, 7,050'. w/ Doug, Ward, Jack, Stephen, June, Christine and A Handful of Riders from Doug’s new club, the Team Bolshevik Revolution. (with climbing of almost 100' per mile this ride rated 145.5, like riding 146 flat miles, harder than many century rides and the equivalent of theChico Wildflower)

Ride statistics courtsey of the official standards and practices division of Ward Industries, all photos by Ward. Some editing done by Pumpkincycle.

Doug was one of the Triple Crown Doubles rookies when we first earned it in 2005. Doug always a little too earnest (and me being a little too much wiseass), on one Double he lectured Mike the vegetarian on how he needs to put more protein in his diet, and me on how I eat too much protein—thus I reasoned that Mike and I combined have a perfect diet. But we played off of each other and the rides always went fast and were enjoyable. Since then Mike has been shipped to Hawaii and Doug moved a little closer, to Sacramento. Doug always says he has great rides for us to do, and when Ward/I ran into Doug at Foxy’s we pestered him for never getting a Club ride together. So Doug did; we got the usual bonus mile riders for the 2 hour drive into the hills. We were joined by some cool riders from Doug’s new club, the Team Bolshevik Revolution Cyclists. We wound up doing loads and loads of attention getting rollers (and a few long hills) in the upper Gold Country were there isn’t 25 feet that remain flat.

(t) Climbing away from the American River. (b) Our host, Doug, eats his fuel of choice at Georgetown Rest Stop. (Ward Photo)I drove up through the Central Valley farm roads where though the sun was out nicely the thermometer read 44. If it stayed under 50 by the time I reached Folsom I was going to try out a new mini-handlebar bag and start out bundled up. (Maybe NOT a good idea with my handlebars cracking a few weeks back “just because,” and I replaced it with the same brand.) Ironically I solo’d a ride in Folsom to Auburn the day before Halloween so was vaguely familiar with the starting point—Folsom is a suburb of Sacramento but with more open space (and ambient asbestos) than most suburbs, and they have an old town section that they promote nicely.

Doug, in the spirit of split loyalties, wore the Bolshevik jersey and the Diablo Cyclist shorts. Otherwise everyone in their respective club kits except for KungFu Christine subliminal message: our next clothing coordinator, who was wearing the Death Ride kit from this year—ironically a guy joined us to bs at the start wearing the same kit, but he was riding in a different direction. It was a little warmer in the parking lot so I eschewed the handlebar bag and heavy jacket. Just used a wool undershirt (hmm—Dr. Dave and I about the same size , my wool undershirt XS and his a M) and vest. The rest of the day would be kinda cool. Within an hour would lose the vest and wouldn’t need it on the climbs. But later at high elevation I was happy to put the vest back on rolling flats, and it was fn cold on the afternoon descents. But the nice thing about the Gold County is that the air is very dry, so with no dew-ish moisture like down here it feels warmer and my breathing isn’t F’d.

June climbing on Marshall Road (Ward photo)

Heading out of Folsom Stephen, who loves to research and race to the county line, was caught napping after Ward rolled on ahead and---oh jeeze, the County Line is about a ¼ mile from the start. This led to spirited returned trip—Stephen sprints better than me and a much better descended, so I tried to lift the pace on the climbs and get rid of him but he held fast. Then when we got close to Folsom Ward counterattacked, Christine joined the fray, I cracked…and the County Line Sign in this direction was missing.

(t) Jack being serious on Marshall Road (b) Stephen keeps thinking he is first passing a County Line Sign (Ward Photos)The rest of the ride was done at a serious but cooperative pace. I tried to stay with anyone at the front—thought at one point dropped to the back to help Ward bring riders up. Loads of well paved main roads surrounded by isolated homes, mom and pop stores, oaks and pine (In the middle of a Placerville subdivision was a private airport where folks land between houses and hills.) —but we must not have been far from population centers (Auburn) as though traffic wasn’t steady the roads were busy with aggressive cars/ pickup trucks. Dorothy, we are not in Davis; very few cars moved over when passing, even when there was nary a shoulder. I got into one “discussion” with idiots in an SUV who shaved me—later a compact almost squeezed one of the Bolshevik Cyclists off the road when passing and then almost came to a complete stop in front of him. For about 25% of the ride we’d wind up on a back road with little traffic—which usually meant a steep climb was coming up.

Apart from the cars the ride was very different that what we are accustomed to. Wound up in the small town of Georgetown, while I know where it is in Washington DC I had never heard of or been in the one in California. Getting to Georgetown had involved mostly climbing. (Folsom is at 275 feet, Georgetown is at 2,600 feet) where we stayed together nicely as a big group. Now going back Stephen kept (correctly) thinking we were close to another County, so coming back we all started marking each other, though we’d never find another County line; and with random folks picking up the pace the group split to hell a few times. Unfortunately our host, Doug, started to lag here—no doubt as a result of not eating enough Rice Krispie Treats, (loaded with minerals, vitamins and vegetables like corn syrup)the perfect endurance food for this ride.

(t) Once again I'll have whatever Dave has in those water bottles (b) Doug having fun on the downhill of Pedro Hill Road (Ward photos)

Returned to Folsom a little after 4:00 with the low sun casting long shadows. Jack had said we’d return 1:33 ahead of sunset (how did he get those 3 minutes) and I should have ran a stopwatch upon returning but didn’t. Great ride, and great riding with Doug again.

(t) Dave trying to tell me that Stanford is going to kick USC's butt-what the hell does he have in those water bottles?? (b) Ward has captured lots of great moments on film, eh microchip, this year so usually he is left out of the ride photographs. So at the end of the ride we brought in a famous nature photographer to capture our cycling photographer, Ward, who is sad as the ride is over and the good riding weather will soon be gone. Amazing what great nature photographers can do with a strip mall parking lot background and a large format film camera. (Ward & some Adams guy photos)